Settler violence in the West Bank stems mainly from settlement outposts

Settler violence in the West Bank stems mainly from settlement outposts

• 2021-11-23 00:03:39
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A special conference will be held in the Israeli Knesset today, Monday, on settler violence in the West Bank, at the initiative of left-wing members Mossi Raz from the Meretz party, Ibtisam Mara’neh from the Labor Party and Osama Al-Saadi from the Joint Arab List.

According to the Hebrew Ynet website, a representative of the left-wing Israeli Peace Now organization will present a report on violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, showing that its main source is the settlement outposts scattered in separate areas.

It appears from an explanatory memorandum to the conference that there has been a 60% increase in settler attacks in the West Bank recently, and that 416 attacks were recorded by the first half of this year.

During the conference, the report will review 1,200 cases of violence from 2012 until last July, compiled by Yesh Din, which shows that most incidents of settler violence against Palestinians (63%) occurred in the vicinity of settlement outposts whose residents represent less than 5% of the number of settlers in the West Bank. That is, about 22,000 out of 450,000 settlers in the West Bank.

Of the 1256 incidents of violence, 796 were against agricultural property near the outposts, 584 were incidents of human assault, and 560 were against public property.

The report indicated that over the years, there has been a decrease in the number of complaints filed by Palestinians about these attacks, although it has increased, due to their lack of confidence and a sense that there is no point in contacting the Israeli police, who do almost nothing to arrest the perpetrators.

According to the report, the main centers of violence are the outposts surrounding the settlement of Yitzhar, which are built on Palestinian lands in Nablus, as well as outposts in the Hebron Mountains.